{"id":648802,"date":"2026-03-09T11:46:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/648802\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T11:46:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:46:23","slug":"kentucky-expected-to-have-zoom-call-with-dink-pate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/648802\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Expected to Have Zoom Call With Dink Pate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope<\/a> was recently in Philadelphia<\/a> to check on G League guard Dink Pate<\/a> of the Westchester Knicks. Now, he\u2019s set to talk with Pate again soon. <\/p>\n

Sources tell KSR that Pate is expected to have a Zoom call with Kentucky within the next week. The 6-foot-7 point guard told KSR+ in January that he\u2019s looking to make the move to college basketball for the 2026 season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to college, but I\u2019m not set in stone on any school,\u201d Pate\u00a0told KSR+ in January<\/a>. \u201cIf UK likes me, that\u2019s where I want to go. I\u2019d like to represent. I know Coach Hart. That\u2019s my guy. That\u2019s my dude. If they play pro-style basketball, I\u2019m going to fit in any type of system. I\u2019m going to work hard for whatever. I haven\u2019t been paying attention, though, because we have our own season going on over here. I know my journey and what I\u2019ve got going on after the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pate joined the NBA G League Ignite team in 2023, becoming the youngest professional basketball player in U.S. history, playing under current Kentucky assistant coach Jason Hart during the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n

After Kentucky\u2019s win over Texas in January,\u00a0<\/a>Mark Pope, unprompted,\u00a0addressed the topic of players who have signed professional contracts, joining college basketball<\/a>. Pope said he wants to put it in the hands of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one stopgap that is kind of spreading right now that maybe has some legs is kind of a last stand,\u201d Pope said. \u201cThe NCAA does get to decide who gets to go to the NCAA Tournament. They get to decide that. They have that power. At some point, when they\u2019ve been very, very clear about what the rules that they\u2019re going to try and enforce. They might lose in court, but they still get to decide what games count towards the NCAA Tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t a comment that fazed Dink Pate. Instead, he saw it as a positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds like he\u2019s with it. Like I said the first time with this experience, I can do it, and I\u2019m going to do it,\u201d Pate said. \u201cI\u2019m 19. I\u2019m not 25. Everybody else who\u2019s doing it is way older than me. I\u2019m the exact age as these other dudes that are in the system right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pate\u2019s relationship with Jason Hart is something he\u2019s weighing heavily. He talked about the relationship with KSR+.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to college, but I\u2019m not set in stone on any school,\u201d Pate said. \u201cIf UK likes me, that\u2019s where I want to go. I\u2019d like to represent. I know Coach Hart. That\u2019s my guy. That\u2019s my dude. If they play pro-style basketball, I\u2019m going to fit in any type of system. I\u2019m going to work hard for whatever. I haven\u2019t been paying attention, though, because we have our own season going on over here. I know my journey and what I\u2019ve got going on after the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pate has appeared in 27 games this season with the G League\u2019s Westchester Knicks, averaging 16.9 points per game. He\u2019s shooting 41.3 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from three-point range, along with 6.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky head coach Mark Pope was recently in Philadelphia to check on G League guard Dink Pate of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,75955],"class_list":{"0":"post-648802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dink-pate-23-pinkston"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116199056673075754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}